World Vision leads relief action in Neno, appeals for support
Children’s charity, World Vision Malawi became the first organization to render a helping hand to people of Neno when it distributed food and non-food items to 2 650 people affected by flooding in Matope community.
Each benefiting household went away with 10 kilograms of maize flour, 10 packets of soya pieces, a plastic bucket and tarpaulin.
Thanking World Vision for the gesture, Representative of the District Commissioner for Neno, Brighton Nthinga said that while it has been days since the disaster hit the district, no organization had come to give relief items to people stranded in schools and other places across the district.
Addressing World Vision’s National Director in Malawi, before appealing to other people to follow the example he said: “Your coming means a lot to the council and the people of Neno”.
Area Development Committee member for the Traditional Authority Symon, MargretNkhalamba further appealed to other partners to further look at sanitation and housing as most households have been left homeless with the flood.
The government declared a state of disaster on 06th March, calling on aid agencies and foreign governments to help. Over 436,000 in 14 districts people have been affected and are either in camps or being houses by friends and family as they wait to rebuild.
In her remarks, Hazel Nyathi thanked the people of Neno for their resilience and urged them to fix their eyes on the future and rebuilding their livelihoods. She further said that World Vision, beyond the food distribution, will be looking at ways to ensure that the people are supported with farm inputs for winter cropping.
“Preliminary indications show this may escalate into a significant relief and recovery situation for Malawi as crop damage will push already fragile communities into food insecurity”, she said.
“Therefore World Vision appeals for support from partners and funding agencies to support affected households with winter cropping tools, especially those in communities that will have access to water”, added Nyathi.
World Vision, has been on the ground responding to floods since February when the first wave of floods displaced over 5, 000 people in Chikwawa.
The organisation set up a Child Friendly centre, provided tarpaulins for temporary homes and gave 250 kilograms of HTH to the District Health Office to help with water treatment.
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